AN INTELLIGENT SOLAR TRACKING

SYSTEM

Umer Adnan
Haroon Ashraf
Nada Masood
THE BASICS: SOLAR TRACKING

 Solar Trackers Increase PV “POWER”

Peak Time
METHODS FOR TRACKING THE SUN
 There are many types of trackers (Single axis, dual axis, Polar etc) but we
will focus our attention on the method of tracking.

 There are three basic methods that Solar trackers use to keep track of the
sun. The goal is to get the “max possible power” averaged over a day.

1. Sensor based
 Employ photodiodes, LDRs and other light sensitive sensors
1. Chronological
 Take longitude/latitude and time/date and use pre-programmed data to set the
Sun angle at each point in time

1. Intelligent Sensor-less control

 Use advanced techniques for detecting where the panels achieves Max Power
and learn to optimize the tracking process over time.
SENSOR BASED TRACKING

 Often used in Hobby / small scale projects.

 Method is highly unreliable due to

 Incorrect data from sensors
 Dust, clouds, wind etc
 LDRs also get heated by and this affects the accuracy of
the output they provide.

 Blindness in such trackers is a very common phenomenon

 They track the brightest part of the ask , which may or may
NOT be the orientation in which the panels produce max
power.
CHRONOLOGICAL TRACKERS

 These trackers use pre-programmed values to find the angle of the

Sun. They have inputs like longitude, latitude, time and date etc fed
into them for each location and produce a value for angle for each
step.

 No matter if its cloudy, sunny or its raining, the tracker will always
position itself according to a “predicted value” of where the Sun will
be.

 Advantages:
 They stick to the sun like glue
 Data from the year 2000 to 2050 can be programmed in the inputs
are known.
 Produce fairly good results
CHRONOLOGICAL TRACKERS

 Disadvantages:
 Its an open loop system. The tracking controller “Predicts”
the angle at which the Sun will be at a particular time. It
doesn’t get any feedback if its doing a good job or not.

 Doesn’t account for

 Clouds / Fog (diffused sunlight)

 Temperature of the solar cells

 Other factors like air mass , moisture etc

 Gives you the perfect angle, BUT…..

Unfortunately , tracking is NOT done to achieve a perfect

angle, It is done in order to get the Max possible power.
SENSORLESS INTELLIGENT CONTROL

 This is an intelligent system, which monitors , in real

time, the photovoltaic energy (power) produced and
avoids systematic failures coming from changes on assumed
values (position, orientation, cleanliness on the cells etc) .
Once turned ON it scans the sky and finds the point as which
max power was produced. Uses a small 10-15 Watt panel
for running operations, and calculating peak power.

 This methodology resembles what goes on in the grid tied

inverter , or other charge regulators , which can boost or
suppress the voltage to maximize the power dynamically as
the load varies.

 This peak power tracking control once deployed , creates a

set of data points in its memory and learns to adapt to its
conditions. It gets smarter as it grows old.
WHY ITS BETTER !
 Solar cells are non-linear devices, here is a plot of the
average silicon solar cell. It is usually plotted by varying the
load across the cell.
WHY ITS BETTER !
Power : P= (V x I). MPP is at the “knee of the curve”
GETTING MAX.POWER
 Our goal will be to orient the panel in such a way that, it
operates at or near MPP. Typically the MPP is at 90% of the
Isc (short circuit current) and between 70-75 % of the Voc
(Open circuit voltage).
VARYING SUNLIGHT
 The system is unaffected by sunlight. It keeps track of the
MPP.
VARYING TEMPERATURE
 As cell temperature varies, so does the Peak power point.
The system is immune to temperature , and will extract the
max possible power at any given temperature.
DESIGN REQUIREMENTS FOR
SINGLE AXIS TRACKER
Engineering Requirements
 Movement
• Slow Rotation , minimal Jerk , Efficient, Higher current
rating than Lorentz tracker
• Single axis (upgradable to 2D)
 Demonstrational
• Immune to dust/Wind/clouds, Intelligence (Learning)
• Intriguing, Grasp Attention
 Special Requirements
• Functions Autonomously, no other data required
• Faces point which produces max.power
• Self-Contained, very low power consumption
• Can Power itself indefinitely
STUDY OF LORENTZ ETA TRACK 1000

 Price ~ 4700* US Dollars

 Weight 320 kg
 Angle 0-90 degrees East-West

 Empirical testing on the controller

 Voltage conditioning circuitry , battery charge
operation, current and voltage signal conditioning, AVR
pins operation(approx), Motor driver operation etc

 Breakup of circuitry and methodology

 Controlling the Linear actuator (0.1 degree accuracy or

less)
ELECTRONICS- TASKS COMPLETED

The electronics sub-circuits have been tested in Proteus

and are logically correct.

1. Current measurement (I max)

2. Open circuit voltage (V oc) , Nominal voltage (V max)
3. Reverse polarity , Overcharge protection of battery
4. Battery charging control
5. Solar voltage signal instrumentation
6. Reed sensor signal conditioning
7. Motor driver selection and testing (LMD18200)
LINEAR ACTUATOR-DESCRIPTION

Reed
Sensor

Limit
switches
LINEAR ACTUATOR READING @
12VDC
LINEAR ACTUATOR PROBLEMS

 Initially we got errors in counting the pulses when using an

8051.Variation of 15-25 pulses on complete stroke length
(compressing and expanding)

 The sensor needed a de-bounce circuitry for proper operation as

Lorentz have given this topic , some important significance.

 Our options in Hardware: RC filter or Schmitt trigger

 Our options in Software: ADC monitoring of signal to remove

noise

 Initially, results from an RC filter, greatly showed improvement in

performance, but since Lorentz have used a Schmitt trigger ,
and fed the output to ADC pin, we are assuming they are doing
both software and hardware checks to ensure a pulse is never
missed at any time.
DE-BOUNCE CIRCUITRY SIMULATION
 Shows a very noisy signal being cleaned by our Schmitt
trigger design.
CALCULATING PEAK POINT OF A PANEL AT
AKHTER SOLAR
 At the Akhter solar factory, they use a SUN SIMULATOR to calculate
the MPP of a solar panel . This is done in order to calculate the
efficiency of the panel by the following formula:

 This term is calculated using the ratio of the maximum power

point, Pm, divided by the input light irradiance (E, in W/m2) under
standard test conditions (STC) and the surface area of the solar cell
(Ac in m2). STC specifies a temperature of 25°C and an irradiance
of 1000 W/m2 with an air mass 1.5 (AM1.5) spectrum. These
correspond to the irradiance and spectrum of sunlight incident on a
clear day upon a sun-facing 37°-tilted surface with the sun at an
angle of 41.81° above the horizon.

 The SUN SIMULATOR flashes a neon lamp @ 1000Hz and takes

readings , compares it to a reference solar cell that is fitted besides
the panel to be tested. It then gives the MPP of the panel/cell. (Will
be verified in our next trip to Hattar)
MAX POWER POINT
 A solar cell may operate over a wide range of voltages (V)
and currents (I). By increasing the resistive load on an
irradiated cell continuously from zero (a short circuit) to a very
high value (an open circuit) one can determine the maximum-
power point, the point that maximizes V×I; that is, the load for
which the cell can deliver maximum electrical power at that
level of irradiation.

 Maximum power (with 45 °C cell temperature) is typically

produced with 75% to 80% of the open-circuit voltage (0.43
volts in this case) and 90% of the short-circuit current.

 The short-circuit current (Isc) from a cell is nearly proportional

to the illumination, while the open-circuit voltage (Voc) may
drop only 10% with a 80% drop in illumination, so only
measuring the voltage wont give as very accurate results.
MAX POWER POINT- THE IDEA …..
 In our case , we will short the solar panel outputs (almost)
with 0.1 Ohms wire wound resistance for 50 milliseconds.
This will give us a point near the Isc of the IV curve, and use
PWM to generate the entire curve, for 0% PWM we will get
Voc, similarly as PWM is increased to 100 % we get a point
very close to Isc. In this way MPP can be located.
MAX POWER POINT- THE IDEA …..
 From the given panel (10W) , closing the switch for very
short period of time and taking the reading, will also use to
essentially make a virtual resistor.
 A resistor by definition limits the flow of electrons in a
circuit, we would limit the flow of electrons by varying the
PWM duty cycle.